Umm, can we all agree that a gay sex scene being unintentionally interrupted by a toddler is incredibly awkward and unnecessary?
Hot Steamy Glasses is the story of Takeo, a wealthy entrepreneur, trying to win the heart of his long-time love Fumi, who has (of course) been resisting the former’s advances because he (of course) doesn’t think he’s gay, which is definitely a story that none of us have heard before. Takeo also enlists the help of Fumi’s younger brother, Shogo (who I think definitely wants Takeo to jump his bones, but you can be the judge), to get them together. There’s a woman involved (Takeo’s secretary) named Reiko who, in line with women-in-yaoi tropes, is meant to be an unlikable bitch for most of the story. There is also a side-story that is pretty much exactly like the main story and largely an excuse for another sex scene, and, confusingly, has a character with the same last name as Takeo. So!
Interestingly, though Takeo and his side story counterpart do have glasses, they don’t mention glasses once in the story, much less anything pertaining to them being steamy. The characters with glasses take them off for every sex scene, and there is no mention or plot point regarding them, which I found kind of odd considering the book’s title. I wonder if they picked that one after eliminating ‘Gay Gundam Party’ or ‘Man-Sex in Manhattan – Virgin Edition,’ both of which would have at least had something to actually do with the story.
All-in-all, I found everything about this manga pretty bad. 65% of the art looked like it was from a bad doujinshi – it was stiff and amateurish-looking with poor anatomy/proportioning and robotic expressions, the intimate scenes were abut as erotic as a doctor’s visit, the story was trite (can we stop with the successful and wealthy semes chasing former lame school friends that are below their league?) and the pacing was off – 3/4ths of the way through the story, they go from first kiss to first blowjob in the space of two panels and it just felt forced. There was like a moe-hater vs otaku running joke could have been used to greater effect as it was a funny idea that was pretty underused. I just couldn’t get into any aspect of this story, which was disappointing.
The side story was unnecessary, it had identical looking characters (one with the same name even) and was basically the same elements of the main story condensed. Which could be a good thing depending on how you look at it – like, just go straight to the back and read that one first, and if you don’t like it, don’t bother with the main one because it’s just a more drawn out version of that.
P.S. “Demmy’s” in Japan serves beer. Wtf, American Denny’s, get with the program here.
(TL;DR): Art is not great, plot is cliché, the few sex scenes are in weird, oddly-paced spots in the story and not very good. Would get drunk at Japanese Denny’s though/10